The numbers are atrocious, Seven tons of human hair, 348,000
men's suits, and 836,225 women's coats, all found at the Auschwitz concentration
camp, the deathbed for 10,000 people daily. But the most deplorable statistic,
twelve million innocent people murdered, six million of whom were Jews. Twelve
million hearts, minds, and smiles eradicated. Twelve million voices silenced.

But there are hopeful numbers, too: the number of lives saved
by people like King Christian X, Raoul Wallenberg, Angelo Roncali, and Giorgio
Perlasca. Strong believers in the value of all life, these special individuals
spoke out against the Holocaust by using their unique talents, influence, and
words to inspire hope and save victims of Nazi persecution.

Across Europe, millions of desperate people were being
unjustly dragged from their lives, deprived of necessities, tortured, and
slaughtered mercilessly. Yet a large part of the world remained silent. How
could they? How could they allow this barbaric massacre to continue?

Millions of Europeans looked the other way simply because of
fear and the instinct of self-preservation (Silver 160). The war and occupation
had put them and their families in imminent danger. The Nazis also created a
climate where it was legitimate to kill Jews (Silver 61). They started slowly,
taking away the Jew's rights and property before directly seizing and killing
them. In countries where the Jewish people were considered outsiders and
economic competitors, it was especially easy to persecute the Jews.

But there were some with feelings of empathy and compassion
rooted deep in their spirits who never wavered in the denunciation of the Nazis'
inhuman acts. When the rest of the world would not help, these people stepped in
and broke the silence.

Among these saviors was King Christian X of Denmark. He
strongly cared about the equality of his Jewish subjects. Christian wrote a
letter to Werner Best, Hitler's plenipotentiary in Denmark, stating, "I
desire to stress to you--not only because of human concern for the citizens of
my country, but also because of fear of further consequences in future relations
between Germany and Denmark--that special measures in regard to a group of
people who have enjoyed full rights of citizenship for more than 100 years would
have the most severe consequences" (Silver 44).

By 1944, over eight million Germans relied on Denmark for
food supplies. Thus, Germany needed their goodwill. When the king's letter
hinted the Danes would no longer cooperate if the Jews were persecuted, Best
chose to comply.

Later on Best planned to grab all the Jews of Denmark in a
grand sweep. However, in a great victory to the Danes, Best only captured 472 of
7,700 Danish Jews. The entire country had banded together to smuggle their
Jewish citizens to the safety of Sweden.

Another individual who boldly spoke out against the Holocaust
was the Swede Raoul Wallenberg. He helped and inspired Jews in his mission to
"save a nation," as well as instigated rescue campaigns by others.

Wallenberg was brought up with an "...enlightened,
cosmopolitan outlook" (Bierman 20). He travelled abroad, meeting all kinds
of people. Wallenberg, who proficiently spoke English, German, Russian, and
French, learned the knack of dealing with the Nazi bureaucracy while working
with the Central European Trading Company (Bierman 26). The experience of
meeting some young Jews in Palestine who had fled Hitler's Germany made a
lasting impression. Later the heinous actions of the Nazis appalled him.

Wallenberg got the opportunity to help when the War Refugee
Board asked him to organize and run a humanitarian department for the Swedish
legislature in Budapest to protect Hungary's Jews. Treated like a diplomat, he
could issue Swedish passports in order to get as many Jews as possible visas to
Sweden. Wallenberg agreed after establishing a nine-point memorandum which
included use of any methods to carry out his mission, money, the power to speak
directly to anyone (not through ambassadors), and the authorization to give
asylum in the legislation's buildings to people with Swedish protective passes (Bierman
33).

When he arrived July 9, 1944, 230,000 Jews were trapped in
Budapest with 400,000 having been already deported. Wallenberg went right to
work designing an impressive-looking Swedish passport. In yellow and blue, it
had the Swedish government's royal triple crown, stamps, seals, and signatures.
Though it had no validity, it inspired respect, saying to Germans and
Hungarians, "...the holder was not an abandoned outcast but under the
protection of the leading neutral power of Europe" (Bierman 51).

The flashy passports also boosted the morale of the Jews, who
could feel human again. Wallenberg originally had permission to issue 1,500 of
these passports but eventually negotiated for 4,500. He then distributed more
than three times that, "encouraging" officials to be blind. When his
office ran out, they printed a simpler certificate bearing Wallenberg's
signature.

With his unlimited funding from the W.R.B. and the
American-Jewish Joint Distribution Company, Wallenberg set up hospitals, soup
kitchens, and bought food, medicine, and clothing. He slept no more than four
hours a night and still continuously showed tremendous zeal, energy, and
administrative skills. But his bravest and most amazing deeds were intervening
with the Jews' death marches to give aid and rescue some of the victims.

With only his personal courage and charismatic personality to
back him up, Wallenberg would confront the Nazis in charge, declare that some of
the people had passports or other identification and were "his"
people, and demand their release. Be it with his confidence, coercion, bribery,
or blackmail, he rescued a total of about 2,000 Jews with his trick. He would
whisper to the Jews he had to leave behind his apologies, "I am trying to
take the youngest ones first...I want to save a nation" (Marton 111).

But in addition to all his acts of rescue and relief,
Wallenberg wrote...and wrote. He sent endless letters back to Stockholm through
a diplomatic courier with information of his progress, the situations in
Hungary, and his needs. But his most valuable writing went to the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry.

Wallenberg considered paperwork both powerful and important (Bierman
96). Every time he had evidence of an unauthorized entry of a protected Swedish
safehouse or a violation of a protective pass, he bombarded the foreign ministry
with protest notes. With infringements happening all the time, Wallenberg was
sending up to two daily, and not without results. The exhausted ministry
officials, in an effort to stop the paper assault, begged the police,
gendarmerie, and Arrow Cross--Hungary's Nazi party--to leave the
Swedish-protected Jews alone (Bierman 96).

In another instance 5,000 youth in fifteen children's homes
were going to be moved, forcibly, to the Jews' General Ghetto where it would be
virtually impossible to care for them. Wallenberg drafted a protest letter to
Ferenc Szalasi, leader of the Arrow Cross, to remind him, "Every civilized
nation respects children, and all the world would be painfully surprised should
traditionally Christian and gallant Hungary decide to institute steps against
the little ones" (Bierman 106). The letter struck Szalasi in the heart, and
he postponed the transfer, which never did occur.

Later it was decreed the 35,000 Jews of Hungary's
International Ghetto were to be marched to the General Ghetto where 75,000 Jews
were already crammed together. Wallenberg knew the Jews would starve on the
march and that the conditions would be inhuman. He sent off a note and
eventually made a bargain to supply the Arrow Cross with much needed food if the
International Ghetto Jews remained where they were. Because of the power of
Wallenberg's words and actions, the Russians found 120,000 Jews alive in
Budapest when they arrived.

The power of his words and actions also inspired others to
speak out. Angelo Roncali, the future Pope John XXIII, took Wallenberg's lead
and wrote up fake baptismal certificates in 1944 for Jews (Chaikin 27). These
and other such official documents meant life or death during the war (Chaikin
125). Another, Giorgio Perlasca, helped protect the Jews as Wallenberg did. He
wrote 3,000 protective Spanish passes for the Jews living in eight Spanish
safehouses in Budapest. When the Spanish embassy pulled out of Budapest in 1944,
Perlasca stayed and continued writing passes. If the Nazis attempted to take his
Jews, he defended them.

Therefore, while many fell silent, other samaritans strove to
save the victims of the Nazis with determined minds and pens in hand.

The Jews tell a story that every generation receives
thirty-six noble souls called Lamed Vav-niks, and for their sakes, God lets the
world exist. They believe that in times of trouble, a Lamed Vav-nik will
suddenly appear to help them. For many Jews, Raoul Wallenberg is a Lamed Vav-nik.

They are right, he is one, as are all those who tried to
fight the Nazi persecutions. They are Lamed Vav-niks for saving their brothers
and sisters and...for breaking the silence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bierman, John. Righteous Gentile. New york: The Viking
Press, 1981.

Chaikin, Miriam. A Nightmare in History. New York:
Clarion Books, 1987.